The night before we left, Grandma Di, Grandpa Scott, Mark, Mayela & Amber came to stay with us to break up the trip a little bit. It was fun having them.
In the morning, we woke up, had breakfast and hit the road. It was a long drive! But the kids did really awesome in the car! We had activities for each hour and snacks on the half an hour. That kept them very entertained. We stopped to wiggle and stretch every 3 hours or so for gas and potty breaks, and our first stop was in Sidney, Nebraska. We got some Sonic, and went over to the Cabela's world headquarters. They had a nice pond that had so many geese and ducks, so we ate under a gazebo there and fed & chased the ducks. It was fun driving along with Grandma and Grandpa.
That night, we stopped in Lincoln, Nebraska for the night. For dinner, we went out to Honest Abe's Burgers. It was so fun. Their burger was so tasty, and it was a really fun atmosphere with all of the Abraham Lincoln paraphernalia, art work, and jokes all over. They had Lincoln Logs for the kids to play with at the table. So we really enjoyed it! Then we went back to the hotel and hung out there. Amber wanted to stay in our room for the night, which we did. All of the kids were super cranky from being in the car all night. Cal was jumping on the beds, Lucy was whining, and Cov was crying. Amber (only child) said "You guys better not have any more kids because you all ready have too many!" Wow! I was a little ticked at the moment because the kids weren't the only ones who were cranky. ;) But now it makes me giggle. That night, we went by this open land next to our hotel, and went to catch fireflies. The kids loved it, since we have never seen those before. We had water bottles and they'd try to catch them (Cal caught several) and put them in. That night, we had some fireflies in our room, and one got out somehow. So while I wasn't asleep, I was watching a firefly zooming around the room. Unfortunately, Lucy threw up that night. Always something! But she was just fine the next morning, thank goodness!
Sunday morning, we drove to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. We went to the visitor center there, which was really nice and very interactive for the kids. The missionaries there were very nice and one was with us the whole way through. Then we walked to their pioneer memorial, looked at the graves, and visited the temple grounds. It was a beautiful temple! The kids thought it was even cooler because we read in the Friend magazine that morning about the stained glass windows and the man who made them for that temple. We also made a pit stop in a little Danish town that had an amazing windmill and gardens. It was beautiful!
We made it to Nauvoo in the afternoon. We stayed at the Nauvoo House, which is where Emma Smith lived after Joseph died. It was so cool! Original flooring and structure, just modernized, and newer paint jobs and such. Emma died in one of the rooms so the kids kept joking it was haunted and would put blankets over each other and pretend to be ghosts. It was so great to see everyone in the same place! Especially Adam and Meghan and kiddos, who we don't get to see all of the time. They were the ones who planned and made arrangements this year, and they did such a fantastic job! We got our room assignments. Amy, Kolby & Boji were roomies with our family. There were bunkbeds from wall to wall. So we set up our beds and got everything situated. The kids ran around and played, so excited to see each other. It was also cool because Meghan put up quotes and scriptures with pictures all over by Emma, Joseph, Lucky Mack and others. Nice touch, Megs!
Then we had dinner, and walked around part of Old Nauvoo. It was so charming. Right on the Missisippi river, beautiful! B.H. Roberts commented that "The word Nauvoo comes from the Hebrew, and signified beautiful location: ‘carrying with it also,' says Joseph Smith, ‘the idea of rest.'" We saw the graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith, and some other members of the family. Then we had story time with Grandma Di, which the kids loved!
After that, it was lunch, Dave and I changed and were able to go to the temple. The temple was beautiful! The architecture, furniture, decor, and ornamentation are all pioneer-era and it is so beautiful! When they rebuilt the temple (it dedicated in 2002), they wanted to make it as close to the original as possible. It got burned down after the Saints left, and later a tornado came and kocked the rest of it down. There is such a special spirit in that temple though! You can feel the spirit of these amazing men and women's sacrifices. Truly, they gave everything they had to build up the kingdom!
While we were at the temple, the kids and everyone else went to do the Pioneer pastimes, which was a bunch of pioneer games and crafts for the kids. They loved it and kept asking the rest of the time to go back! They spent all afternoon there. We had a pioneer meal my mom made. We had baked beans, corn on the cob, homemade bread and butter, salad, and Emma Smith's recipe for gingersnaps and ice-cream for dessert. Emma and Amber helped Grandma make the cookies, they loved it and they were good! That night, we went to a program put on by the young and senior missionaries - "Sunset on the Mississippi". It was raining hard that night, so they moved it indoors at the visitor center. It was so fun, they sang pioneer songs, modern songs, danced, had funny skits, we loved it! Then we walked around the visitor center. The rain cleared out just in time for the British pageant. It was so amazing! My testimony was strengthened and all of the kids were glued and they all stayed awake for the whole thing. The actors were so talented, and really performed of Christ! The kids were kind of wired and didn't want to go to bed that night. Some played games and chatted until late. It was so good to just be with all our family, relaxing and enjoying each other.
Then we went to visit all of the historic sites. We saw the Family Living Center, where we learned how the pioneers lived and survived, how they made what they did and so forth. We went to Scovil's bakery, the Browning Gunsmith shop, and my favorite, the Stoddard Tinsmith shop. We had visited Nauvoo when I was very young, probably 4. We had a picture of my brother Adam outside of the Stoddard Tinsmith shop. My parent's went back to Nauvoo about 5 years ago and when they were there, they told them they didn't have any pictures of what it used to look like before they renovated it. Mom and Dad told them they'd been there about 25 years ago and had a picture of it and the missionaries told them to send it if they could. So right inside the Stoddard Tinsmith shop now is a framed picture of Adam. He signed it while we were there. Pretty cool! We saw other shops and places, it was super fascinating. I love the pioneer's examples of hard work, generosity, ingenuity, dedication, and thrift.
We ate lunch then made the drive to Carthedge Jail, where Joseph's mortal life ended. The statues outside paying tribute to Joseph & Hyrum were really neat. Cal especially liked them and wanted to give them hugs. Cov was pretty good most of the trip but so restless here. So was Boji, so Am and I spent most of the time trying to wrangle them, hehe. We watched a video at the Visitor's Center about Joseph's life and death. How grateful I am he fulfilled his mission here on this earth to restore the true and living Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we were able to go to the jail and tour that. Again, Covey wasn't wanting to be still or quiet (can we blame him?) so I had to go outside. The Nauvoo brass band was out playing, so he liked dancing to that. I missed the rest of the tour, but just being there was amazing. Such a somber, but strong feeling in there that Joseph sealed his testimony with his blood. These scriptures, testimonies from the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon from D&C 76 kept going through my mind the whole time we were there:
"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."
After that, we went to Nauvoo State Park to play at the playground. It was so muddy! Then back to the house for a while, let the kids nap and rest for a bit. We helped make dinner, ate, and then left again. This time, we went to the Country Fair. They had so many games, activities, and crafts for the kids to do, they loved it! Then we saw the Nauvoo pageant, which was incredible. And again, the kids did well. Hooray! That night, we stayed up late chatting and playing games.
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